Wednesday, 27 February 2008

TAGGED AND AN AWARD

Lil and Ila tagged me some time ago to tell 7 things about me. I have already listed 7 weird things about me (see the labels) and so I will tell you 7 random things which come to my with-a-bad-flu-fogged mind!

- I don´t like coffee, I only drink tea (any kind), water and fruit juice.
- I don´t like alcohol either, which restricts my choices of beverage (see first point) .
- I walk very fast. A lot of people have problems keeping up with me (even my DH who is bigger than I) .
- I don´t like big full shopping streets. It is not that I don´t like a crowd, I don´t have any problem at the theater or the cinema. It is just that as I walk fast, I feel like most of the people are blocking my way and I want to push them aside!
- At school, I hated sewing!
- My DH and I met in England. He didn´t speak french, I didn´t speak german so the lingua franca in the first 3 years (as we lived apart) was english.
- I introduced my DM to patchwork and quilting and now she can´t stop!


Britta and Brigitte gave me an award, how nice. Thank you very much.
I give the award to all the people reading my blog and if you feel like telling us 7 things about you, feel tagged by me!


No, this is not my 4SSQ for spring! It is a crib quilt I made some time ago to show how to get curves with folded fabric. And yet another attempt at getting rid of the flowery fabrics!





Last week-end, I had a cold and was feeling very unwell so I spent as much time as I could on the couch and I managed to finish the Icarus shawl. The blocking was a bit of an adventure as it was the first time but I like this first version so much that I have started another one in a grey-blue yarn.

My sewing machine is back! Of course I had to sew something to see how it goes. it is much quieter than before and it is all shiny because of the oil. I hope now that I can sew without problems for at least the next 10 years!
I made a key-holder with a ribbon and a button I had in my stash.



Don´t forget that in 2 days, Bea will post the 3rd stitchery BOM.
I wish you inspiration and a nice week.

Tuesday, 19 February 2008

FRUSTRATION KNITTING

Yesterday I got a phone from the sewing-machine repairman. The electronic is broken and it will cost about 230 Euro (nearly 350 $) to repair it! GREAT, great, great. Do you see how much fabric or yarn that is?! Apparently it does not happen that often (well that´s nice to hear!) and of course after 5 years my machine is not under warrenty anymore. Zut,zut, zut! (french cursing)


Anyway, on the brighter front I finished my pair of Jaywalker socks with the wonderful wool from Handgefaerbt.com. It is mentioned on few blogs that these socks are not elastic compare to ribbing and I can only agree! Still I like the pattern.








Last week some books arrived from Amazon:


The Virginia Quilt book is very nice, full of wonderful quilts (some with 23 stitches per inch quilting!) and interesting stories. I find only that some of the pictures are a bit small but then if each quilt had been one page, it would have been an very thick book!
I have seen so many inspirational knits from the Fitted Knits on blogs that I had to have that book too and indeed there are two or three projects that I intend to make.
I was lucky too to get the Interweave Knits on Ebay as I wanted to make the
Icarus shawl.
After the above-mentioned call I was so frustrated that I had to do some retail therapy and the Icarus shawl was just the right thing to calm me down. I bought some nice merino lace wool for very little (under 4 Euro, under 6$ for 150 g) and I started straight away. It is the first time that I am knitting lace and fortunately the beginning is easy.


A good exercice to calm down was iron-folding the prairie points for my Delectable mountains too! That´s boring and it takes very long. I hope I have enough now. As soon as my Bernina is back ( even better than new I hope) I will sew them to the border.

I wish you a serene time without bad surprises!

Wednesday, 13 February 2008

4SSQ ARRIVED!

Today was this cuttie in my letter box. It was sent from Melinda. Melinda is a professional long-arm quilter and you can see it! This cheerful quilt is hanging now in my sewing room, beside the other miniquilts I have received and made so far.



Last week-end the weather was wonderful here and I was having some quality time with my sewing machine finishing that top.


I opened the window of my sewing room and went to fetch the camera to take a picture.

Then I sarted sewing again to finish zigzaging the border of the quilt when suddenly my dear Bernina switched itself off!
It is BROKEN. I could not switch it on again.
It doesn´t like an opened window or being taken the picture of or what?!
Of course I went to the repair shop first thing on Monday but still haven´t heard anything.
And what am I supposed to do in the meantime? I could hand-quilt, I could knit, I could stitch, well I just have to wait patiently and hope for a not too high bill.

I wish you a nice weather AND a working sewing-machine!

Wednesday, 6 February 2008

A RELAXED LONG WEEK-END

Last week-end was a long one here because of Carnival. As I don´t like being in a crowd, I stayed at home. My DS and I baked some crêpes though (a tradition in France before Lent begins).


My second Bea´s BOM is finished. I can already see that it will make a nice quilt when the 12 blocks are done!

My first yarn parcel arrived! My DH gave me a yarn suscribtion for Christmas. It means that I will become 4 times during the year 4 different yarns according to the season. Here you see the spring pack. The wool is very nice and so yummy that I had to start something straight away of course. I took the one on the far right and I started knitting some socks. The yarn is finer than normal sock wool I think and I knit with needles Nr. 2 (US 0).


I will show some pictures in the next post!

I sewed all the blocks of my "Delectable Mountains" and it turned out BIG! It is over 2 meters x 2 metres (80" x 80"). I wonder what I will do with that one!

I started sewing the top together so I hope to have it finished next week. Then I only (sic!) have to make about 120 prairie points.


My 4SSQ arrived at Julie´s and she told me that she liked it. I haven´t heard anything from Margaret telling me that the quilt for me was on the way so I hope nothing bad happened to the maker.


I wish you a nice time and a lot of inspiration.